Break through in desalinization!

[The Mad Monk]

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...arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...

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[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Geronimo
The more freshwater that is removed from the oceans (either through 'natural' evaporation or artifical means) the saltier the oceans will have to become.

Arrr, this be no problem. IIRC, something like 99% of the world's water be in the oceans.

[Lancer]

The water we desalinate in this manner will eventually end up back in the oceans.

Any global warming effects from removing reflective deserts should be countered by increased cloud cover as water from post desert farms evaporates. You cover the world's deserts with farmers fields and world rainfall will increase.

Btw, you can forget SoCal in this. Turning deserts into farmland will cause the three toed horny lizard to become endangered. After that frigging owl bit there's no way us Oregonians are going to let em get away with it. We'll be down south with big signs 'Save the Horny Lizard, DOWN with water desalinization', just to get even.

[Heresson]

Now that they can desalinisate, perhaps they will return the sources of Jordan and other rivers to Lebanon, and Golan with eastern shores of Tiberias lake to Syria....

[DRoseDARs]

Originally posted by Pekka
drosedars, hey I drove through the Nevada deserts. There's no 'sensible desert' and 'insensible desert'. It's really a desert, and just because there are small areas where some grass grows, it still is a desert. The people who really want to live there, by all means, they should do that if they want to. But they are moving into desert. Fact.

To me, it's like 'hey I want to move in a war zone'.

pekka, hey I've lived in the Nevada deserts...for 18 years. Thank you, yes, I noticed that it's desert out here. But there are different kinds of deserts with different kinds of growing conditions and precipitation patterns. Some desert types are more livable than others. You might check out a book sometime from your local library on the subject.

And for the record, I didn't move here because I wanted to. I was five at the time. I bloody hate the desert in all its forms as far as living in one. After I've completed my degree I plan on moving somewhere green and wet.

[Straybow]

Originally posted by DRoseDARs
It costs so much because it still a relatively "new" technology and as such isn't widely manufactured enough to bring down production costs. The more people buy it, the cheaper it becomes to produce it. It a capitalist thing that I don't know how to explain properly. My feeling is that the government should step in a find a surefire means of meeting our energy demands without killing us with resultant pollution. This coupled with these desalinization plants would ease a lot of problems here in the US.

Arrr, ye be daft, mate!

[non-pirate mode]
The reason photovoltaics are expensive is because they are pathetically inefficient. 5-6% at best, with some expensive lens/filter methods doubling that. It's unavoidable because only a very narrow wavelength bandwidth has the hv power level to liberate electrons. The voltage produced is also very low.
[/non-pirate mode]

[Straybow]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
Where will they put the salt from the desalinization efforts? It will be toxic waste.

…

The more freshwater that is removed from the oceans (either through 'natural' evaporation or artifical means) the saltier the oceans will have to become.

Arrr, this be no problem. IIRC, something like 99% of the world's water be in the oceans.

Arrr, ye shivvered yer own timbers there, mate.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by DRoseDARs
After I've completed my degree I plan on moving somewhere green and wet.

You're gonna hate the humidity.

[DRoseDARs]

I think I'd rather drown breathing the open air than have chapped lips and dry, flaky skin 365 days a year...

[chequita guevara]

Have you ever been someplace with high humidity? Go to New Orleans in the summer.

[DRoseDARs]

I was born in Chicago, I've been along the entire west coastline (from Seattle to San Diego over the years), I was in Austin TX over New Years, I've visited Little Rock AK, and I went to Orlando FL one summer. Do those places count?

[DRoseDARs]

Forgot to add: Honolulu, Sydney, and the Great Barrier Reef.

[chequita guevara]

I guess so.

[DRoseDARs]

[Straybow]

Whadya mean? CA coast isn't high humidity. Humidity gets higher in the valley with all the irrigation going. San Antonio in the dead of winter doesn't count either.

I refer you to Lancer's thread about Earth-enema: check out Ft. Polk. Orlando in the summer is indeed nasty for humidity.